This squashed bun from Ferdinando’s Focacceria may not look it, but it’s one of our city’s great sandwiches. The rickety old cafe on Union Street specializes in Sicilian dishes like vastedda, the spleen sandwich, and also serves great big arancina, a fried rice ball stuffed with beef and peas. This pannelle special beats them all.

It’s filled with golden leaves of pannelle — a popular Sicilian snack made with a fried chickpea-flour paste — then topped with an enormous scoop of fresh ricotta and some grated Pecorino Romano. The whole thing is warmed in the oven.